Water Security, Risk and Society Conference 2012

Water security is a defining challenge for society in the 21st century. The ancient struggle to cope with water access and shocks is now magnified by global change to societies, economies and climate at multiple scales.

The International Conference on Water Security, Risk and Society was held on 16-18 April 16-18 2012 at the University of Oxford. The event convened many of the world’s leading thinkers from science, policy and enterprise to understand the status of and pathways to water security at multiple scales.

The conference offered a platform for over 200 academics, policymakers and business leaders to respond to society’s pressing water security challenges by (i) taking stock of the evidence base informing policy choices and strategic business decisions; and (ii) establishing investment priorities for science-policy-enterprise partnerships. The conference fostered exchange across developed and developing countries and regions, seeking to identify and elucidate global interdependencies between different socio-economic and cultural contexts.